As an idea, transforming Chekov's play Uncle Vanya into something to be performed by one man, appears utterly mad. On paper you would be right to ask - why? But then 'on paper' can so often give an entirely incorrect impression. As ever, you really have to experience it to discover what its imaginative worth is.
Chekov's play is about a family and their servants living on their country estate. A self centred writer and his young wife, live off the proceeds of it. They reside in the country even though they hate it, because financially they can't afford to live anywhere else. There are unspoken tensions and loves in the air too.
For this one man version, simply called Vanja, Andrew Scott carefully worked how to delineate all the characters. How to move from one to the other seamlessly to still make sense, so you know who he is at any one moment in time. That said this is not just a technical, but also a psychological tour de force. Retaining the mournful mood of the original, it is by turns witty, playful, intensely sad and moving, sometimes all within a few seconds.
As he slips from playing one character to another, you could easily interpret this as multiple personas split within the one person. The overall impression it left me with was how much Chekov's characters in this play exist in a similar suspended state. Disappointed with themselves, frustrated with their lives, perhaps at differing stages of despair or the desire for life to be something other than what it is. But each unable to take agency over what it is that they truly want out of their existence.
It is a brilliant adaption by Simon Stephens , given a charismatic marvel of a performance by Andrew Scott at its centre, that is hugely well deserving of all the accolades that's been heaped upon it.
CARROT REVIEW - 7/8
Currently available to view by subscription on National Theatre at Home.
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